It has long been known to equip a motor vehicle with sun visors to shade the eyes of the driver and front seat passenger from the glare of the sun coming through the windshield or window of a motor vehicle. Many motor vehicles include sun visors that are pivotally mounted on individual stalks and manually pivoted on the stalks between a stowed position adjacent the motor vehicle headliner and one or more operating positions covering an upper portion of the windshield or side window. Unfortunately, such manually-operated sun visors may become a distraction to the driver, who must remove a hand from the steering wheel in order to manipulate the sun visor into the desired position. This typically takes place when the driver has already been blinded by the glare of the sun. Further, it should also be appreciated that a typical sun visor does not cover the full area of the windshield between the A-pillar at the side of the vehicle and the rearview mirror support at the center of the vehicle, leaving gaps at both ends through which the sun's glare may reach the eyes of the driver or passenger.
Recognizing these shortcomings, some visor systems have been developed with computer controllers, so as to avoid the need for manual deployment of the sun visor. As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,122 (assigned to Ford Global Technologies, LLC), such systems may also include insert visors 14 that may be deployed laterally to reduce the gap between the ends of the primary visor and (a) the A-pillar and (b) the rearview mirror support. While useful, such systems require that the sun visor panels be made thicker in order to accommodate the insert visors and their drive gear. Further, the visor panels are also heavier. The added bulk of such sun visors makes them difficult to aesthetically stow in most motor vehicles, which inherently have limited headroom, and the added weight can adversely affect the service life of associated components such as hinges.
This document relates to a new and improved sun visor system that is compact and lightweight, that is particularly convenient to utilize and that will efficiently and effectively operate over a long service life. Further, the sun visor system disclosed in this document provides protection from the sun's glare across the entire width of the windshield between the A-pillar and the rearview mirror support without any gaps that might allow the sun's glare to reach the eyes of the driver or front seat passenger. As such, the sun visor assembly set forth herein represents a significant advance in the art.